week 8

Understanding Measurement for Kids using challenging tasks

DIY Ramp for understanding distance

PAW Patrol Toy Cars - Top left is Chase; Top Right is Skye; Bottom Right is Marshall; and Bottom Left is Rubble

From the Maths K-10 Syllabus of the Australian Curriculum

Strand: Measurement

Sub-strand: Length

Stage: Early Stage 1

Content: Use direct and indirect comparisons to decide which is longer, and explain their reasoning using everyday language (ACMMG006)

• use everyday language to describe distance, eg near, far, nearer, further, closer

The Challenging Task:

Ryder, the leader of PAW Patrol wants to test the cars of his 3 dogs namely:

• a.      the police dog, Chase
• b.      the firefighter dog, Marshall, and
• c.      the aviator dog, Skye

All of the cars are pushed down the ramp at the same time.

Ryder needs to know which car is:

• a.      near the ramp,
• b.      far from the ramp,
• c.      nearer from the ramp,
• d.      further from the ramp,
• e.      the nearest from the ramp,
• f.       the farthest from the ramp

Enabling prompt:  Look at the three cars. Notice how far they are from the ramp. Where is the ramp from Chase’s car? Is it near or far? How about Marshall’s and Skye’s? Is Marshall’s car nearer than Chase’s car from the ramp? Which car went the farthest?

Extending prompt: If Ryder will remove the ramp, will the cars’ distance be the same? Make a chart that shows the first task cars’ distances and your 1^st guess, and then the last tasks result and show your explanation to your group mates.

Reflection

The above task that I created can be a fun task to do to Kindergarten students. This can be an engaging activity due to the following reasons:

First, I used the characters from PAW Patrol which is popular to Kindergarten students. I just chose three dogs from the famous children TV show, which are mostly seen, and one of the dogs is a female dog for some children who have gender preference.

Second, this can be performed in the class as long as there are materials and if possible, using the PAW Patrol character cars.

Lastly, teachers can use play-based approach side-by-side with the intentional teaching (DEEWR, 2009) which is introducing distance vocabulary words.

The given statement is my example that imply an open-ended task.

The enabling prompts which is to reduce its complexity is by giving questions to draw the students’ attention to important aspects (Ferguson, 2018). I used questions that will lead students to compare three objects for them to use comparative languages – near, far, nearer and further, as well as superlative adjectives - the nearest and the farthest.  The names of the PAW Patrol dogs could possibly help them identify which are these objects that they are comparing with.

The extending prompt is to make students think more without doing additional work (Ferguson, 2018). The prompt given is just by removing the ramp and observe if the distance from each other are still the same from the first task's result. By making a chart of the results and their guesses, it will require them to reason out to their peers their thinking while using the intended mathematical language for this task.

References

DEEWR (2009). Being, Belonging and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Barwon, ACT Commonwealth of Australia.

Ferguson, S. (2018). Developing prompts with challenging tasks [online]. Prime Number, 33(4), 21. Retrieved on 15/05/2020 from https://search-informit-com-au.ezproxy1.acu.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=905946453114743;res=IELHSS

New South Wales. Board of Studies (2012). Mathematics K-10 syllabus: NSW syllabus for the Australian curriculum. Board of Studies NSW, Sydney